The 2025 Wepler Prize was awarded to Bernard Bourrit for “Détruire tout”, a novel about feminization

Hélène Laurain, author of “Tambora”, received special attention from the jury.

Author Bernard Bourrit, writer Destroy everythinga novel about feminization in Switzerland in the 1960s, on Monday 10 November was recognized by the Wepler Prize, a literary award dedicated to emerging writers. Published in September by Inculte/Actes Sud, this story offers, according to publisher Actes Sud, a “total immersion” In the “spirit of the times”, with the aim of investigating the circumstances that led to the murder of a woman named Carmen by her boyfriend Alain.

Destroy everything is the first novel by Bernard Bourrit, 48, author of several essays and short texts on foreign art, funerary portraits or relics, according to a press release for the Wepler prize, named after the Parisian brasserie where it was awarded.

Supported by the La Poste Foundation, the 10,000 euro prize is awarded by a jury consisting of booksellers, literary critics and readers, including La Poste employees and prisoners, as well as awards “romantic risk taking and demanding style”, according to a press release. On the Wepler Prize list, Bernard Bourrit replaces writer Thomas Clerc, who was honored in 2024.

Special attention of the jury was given to Hélène Laurain for Tambora (Verdier Edition), the awakening of a mother of her two daughters, one already here, the other about to be born, in a world marked by confinement and the threat posed by climate change.

Write “sometimes rude”, book by Hélène Laurain “combining stories, reflections and poetry”, underlines the Wepler Prize press release. This difference is worth 3,000 euros.